General offers assurances on Afghan war 
The U.S. general in charge of the Afghanistan war assured lawmakers Tuesday that an additional 30,000 troops, combined with changes in the overall war strategy, would trigger a demonstrable change on the ground before U.S. forces start to come home in 18 months.
"By the summer of 2011, it will be clear to the Afghan people that the insurgency will not win, giving them the chance to side with their government," Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal said.
Despite such assurances, members of the House and Senate armed services committees used the appearance Tuesday by McChrystal -- as well as the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Karl W. Eikenberry -- to press for answers on what would happen in July 2011, when the 30,000 forces that President Obama recently committed to sending to Afghanistan are to begin their gradual pullout.
Iraqi man, lucky dog reunite after Baghdad blast
BAGHDAD — The owner of a dog that miraculously survived a massive bombing returned to his collapsed home Wednesday to be reunited with his pet, stunning neighbors who thought he was dead.
The ginger-colored dog was spotted chained to a roof railing and standing on a wall ledge over the collapsed home after Tuesday's huge blast near Iraq's Finance Ministry leveled shops and houses. The attack was part of coordinated bombings around Baghdad that claimed at least 127 lives.
"Lots of neighbors thought I was dead," said Farouq Omar Muhei after his dog, Liza, was carried down to the street and began lapping at a puddle.
Coordinated blasts hit Baghdad; kill at least 121
BAGHDAD -- A series of coordinated attacks struck Baghdad Tuesday, including two suicide car bombers and another vehicle that blew up near government sites. At least 121 were killed and hundreds wounded in the worst wave of violence in the capital in more than a month, authorities said.
A total of five attacks, which also included a suicide car bomb on a police patrol, showed the ability of insurgents to strike high-profile targets in the heart of Baghdad and marked the third time since August that government buildings were targeted with multiple blasts that killed more than 100 people.
The bombings reinforced concerns about shortcomings in Iraqi security as U.S. forces plan their withdrawal, and parliament held an emergency session with many lawmakers demanding answers for apparent security lapses.
Climate Summit Will Produce 'Robust' Accord, UN Chief Ban Says
Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) -- United Nations Secretary-General BanKi-moon predicted the Copenhagen summit on climate change willproduce an agreement on cutting greenhouse gas emissions thatwill be effective immediately.
“I expect a robust agreement at the Copenhagen summit thatwill be effective immediately and include specificrecommendations on mitigation, adaptation, financing andtechnology,” Ban told reporters today at the UN in New York.
Representatives of about 190 nations, including 105presidents and prime ministers, began to gather in the Danishcapital yesterday to set a framework for a treaty to curbemissions blamed for global warming. Talks have been slowed bydifferences between industrialized nations and developingcountries over emissions-reduction targets and how muchfinancial help rich nations should provide to poor ones.
Toll in Baghdad blasts rises to at least 118 dead
BAGHDAD -- A series of coordinated attacks struck Baghdad Tuesday, including two suicide car bombers and another vehicle that blew up near government sites. At least 118 were killed and hundreds wounded in the worst wave of violence in the capital in more than a month, authorities said.
A total of five attacks, which also included a suicide car bomb on a police patrol, showed the ability of insurgents to strike high-profile targets in the heart of Baghdad and marked the third time since August that government buildings were targeted with multiple blasts that brought massive bloodshed.
The bombings reinforced concerns about shortcomings in Iraqi security as U.S. forces plan their withdrawal, and parliament held an emergency session with many lawmakers demanding answers for apparent security lapses.
Coordinated Bombings in Baghdad Kill at Least 121
BAGHDAD — A series of devastating car bombings rocked Baghdad on Tuesday, killing at least 121 people and wounding hundreds more, according to preliminary accounts by witnesses, the police and hospital officials.
Five bombs in all, including at least three suicide attacks, struck near a college, a court complex in western Baghdad, a mosque and a market and a neighborhood near the Interior Ministry in what appeared to be a coordinated assault on the capital.
The blasts began shortly after 10 a.m. and reverberated through the city for the next 50 minutes, sending enormous plumes of black smoke into the air.
Officials warn of increased violence leading up to 2010 elections
BAGHDAD -- A series of bombings apparently targeting educational facilities and other crowded areas killed scores of people in Baghdad on Tuesday morning.
Authorities said at least 112 people were killed and 425 were wounded. At least six bombings were reported, with the explosives detonating minutes apart, starting at approximately 10:15 a.m.
The violence marred a week during which the government had hoped two positive developments -- the passing of an election law on Sunday, and the upcoming auction of oil field contracts to foreign companies -- would dominate headlines. Iraqi and American officials have warned that insurgents may continue attacks in the months leading up to parliamentary elections, which are supposed to take place early in 2010.
WH: Obama Favors Legislation on Global Warming
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WASHINGTON (AP) -- A White House spokesman says President Barack Obama still prefers legislation on climate change and that Monday's EPA declaration on greenhouse gas dangers was done in response to a court-ordered timetable.
Robert Gibbs told reporters at his daily briefing that the EPA's statement was set into motion by a 2007 Supreme Court decision. He also said that Obama ''still believes the best way to move forward is through the legislative process.''
NATO to pledge forces for Afghan war
BRUSSELS — Military representatives of NATO's 28 member nations met Monday to pledge additional troops to serve alongside the 30,000 reinforcements committed to Afghanistan by President Barack Obama, a spokesman said.
The conference at NATO's military headquarters in Mons, Belgium, is expected to confirm last week's pledges made by allied nations for an additional 7,000 troops. Results will be announced Tuesday after the meeting ends, NATO deputy spokeswoman Carmen Romero said.
On Friday, NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he expects member states to commit several thousand more troops by the time of an international conference in London in January, where the allies will discuss the war effort and an eventual exit strategy with Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai.
Gates Calls July 2011 the Beginning, Not End, of Afghan Withdrawal
WASHINGTON — Perhaps only a “handful” of American troops will be leaving Afghanistan in July 2011, the date President Obama has set to begin a gradual withdrawal, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said in an interview broadcast Sunday.
“I don’t consider this an exit strategy,” Mr. Gates said on ABC’s “This Week.” “This is a transition,” and one, he said, that would begin in less-contested parts of Afghanistan before expanding to the most obdurate Taliban strongholds, largely in the south and east.
The White House used appearances on the Sunday talk programs to convey that the deadline would mark the start, not the end, of troop withdrawal. “2011 is not a cliff, it’s a ramp,” Gen. James Jones, the national security adviser, said.
